Your Right to Know

The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair
computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces,
according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project. The
Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — is not ready for use, but researchers say they
are making significant advances on it. That alarms privacy advocates.

Restaurants might end automatic tips for groups

If you’ve dined out in a big group, chances are you had an automatic tip tacked on to your bill.
That practice might end soon. Darden Restaurants may drop automatic gratuities for tables of eight
or more at its chains, including Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse. Experts predict
others will follow. An Internal Revenue Service ruling will treat such gratuities as wages. That
could lead to higher payroll taxes for restaurants and make bookkeeping more complicated.

In reversal, reservation allows sale of alcohol

Residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota have voted to allow alcohol
sales. The reservation has long banned alcohol, but it has been smuggled in anyway and blamed for
many problems, such as crime and suicide. Proponents say selling alcohol on the reservation will
allow better regulation and raise tax money to fight alcohol abuse.